Selling the same product from two different vendors

[Cormac_Kerrigan]

Hi Folks,

I may be over thinking this, but can someone best advise how to approach this scenario. We are currently migrating a large store over from Magento and our figuring out how to best organise the hundreds of products into different collections. These products can be purchased by two different vendors. Essentially the product is the same e.g. Cast Iron Gutter, but it can be supplied by different vendors. Is variants the best approach here or what is and what do we do for stock levels? TIA

[Yvonne_Yoast]

Hi @Cormac_Kerriga,

When migrating a large store from Magento to Shopify and dealing with products that can be supplied by different vendors, you have a few options to consider:

1. Using Variants:

   • If the products are essentially the same but differ only by vendor, you can use variants to represent the different vendors. This way, each product page can have a dropdown or selection for the vendor, similar to how you might select a size or color.
   • This approach keeps your product catalog cleaner and avoids duplicate listings for essentially the same product.

2. Separate Products:

   • Alternatively, if there are significant differences between the products from different vendors (e.g., price, quality, shipping times), you might consider listing them as separate products. This allows for more detailed descriptions and specific stock levels per vendor.

3. Stock Levels:

   • For stock levels, if using variants, you can manage stock for each variant separately in Shopify. This means you can track how many units are available from each vendor.
   • If using separate products, each product will naturally have its own stock level.

Ultimately, the best approach depends on how different the products are from each vendor and how you want to present them to your customers. If the differences are minimal, variants might be the simplest solution. If there are notable differences, separate listings could provide more flexibility.

For more detailed guidance on handling product variants in Shopify, you might find this Shopify SEO guidehelpful.

I hope this helps. Wishing you the best of luck, and have a wonderful day!